Chief Scientist / Head - Quantum Physics

Chief Scientist / Head, Quantum Physics and PHY CoE Leadership, Quantum Physics Centre of Excellence for India's pioneering quantum-security company building quantum key distribution, quantum random number generation, post-quantum cryptography and quantum sensing into products that protect data against the quantum threat. We are scaling our senior technical leadership and looking for exceptional people to lead our Centres of Excellence and strategic programmes. Mission: Be the scientific authority for our quantum-secure links. Own the physics of the physical layer: the photonic transmit/receive chain, modulation and single-photon detection and own the security proofs that underwrite every product. You are the final technical word on whether a link is secure, and the person who defends that claim before national reviewers.

Responsibilities:

Act as senior physicist and design authority for link security from protocol assumptions and finite-key bounds to the parameters the hardware must meet.

Own the optical physical layer across our discrete- and continuous-variable QKD systems, including free-space links.

Define and validate the transmit and receive chains: sources, modulators, interferometers, detectors, timing and synchronisation.

Develop and defend secure-key-rate models, finite-key security budgets, and the loss/error trade-offs that set everyone else's specifications.

Lead the optical metrology bench and a disciplined measurement-to-model validation practice.

Lead implementation-security review of the physical layer and define the countermeasures.

Set the scientific research agenda: new protocols, longer range, higher key rate and represent the organisation in publications, standards and technical reviews.

Build and mentor the physics bench team and teach QKD security across the organisation.

Requirements:

We care more about depth, curiosity and leadership than a checklist.

If you are strong in most of the below and excited by the rest, we want to hear from you.

Quantum / optical physics foundation: a graduate-level command of quantum optics and electromagnetism.

A PhD in quantum optics, quantum information, AMO or photonics with hands-on lab experience is the ideal background.

QKD protocol physics: the ability to reason from security assumptions to key rate.

Direct QKD experience is ideal; strong quantum-information or quantum-optics researchers ready to specialise are also encouraged.

Security proofs: comfort with finite-key security arguments, entropic methods and min-entropy reasoning or the mathematical maturity to master them quickly.

Photonics and detection: lasers and interferometers, modulation and polarisation control, and single-photon or low-light detection with rigorous noise and timing budgeting.

Experimental discipline: real lab credibility building, characterising and trusting optical measurements, and tying them back to a model.

Scientific leadership: a publication, patent and/or standards record and the credibility to serve as the organisation's external scientific voice.

Good to Have Leadership and Management:

Project management: running multi-workstream technical programs against government and commercial milestones; risk, dependency and schedule management; stage-gate / TRL-based delivery.

Product management: turning customer and stakeholder needs into requirements and roadmaps, and balancing technical, cost and time-to-market trade-offs. People leadership: hiring, mentoring and growing a high-calibre team; setting goals and giving feedback; building a first-principles engineering culture.

Stakeholder engagement: engaging government, academic and industry partners, and representing the organisation in technical reviews and tenders.

Communication: clear technical decks and documents for expert and non-expert audiences, and confident presenting to evaluators, customers and leadership.

Funding and proposals: supporting grant, tender and funding submissions, including technical write-ups and budget justification.